St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-01-04
MATCHING FINE DIAMONDS.
The Difficulty OF Getting TOs ether
a Satisfactory Diamond Necklace.

The Difficulty OF Getting TOa ether
a Satisfactory Diamond Necklace.
New York Sun.
A fashionable looking gentleman entered
well-known jeweIry store one day last
week in great hurry.
II want,'' he said, with some hesitation u
diamond earring to match this one. l
must have it by tomorrow without fail, as
the pair is intended for birthday present.
I brought this one and its mate from
Europe last week, and one was either lost
OF stolen" ~
The proprietor looked at the earring
critically and smiled.
"You ask what is impossible" he said.
''That is very fine diamond, and cannot
be matched in weight and color without
great care, if at all. might have to look
at thousand stones before | could get one
like it, and | might not be able to get one
without having it cut to order. There is
not ieweler in the world who can match
a stone like that at days notice, unless he
stumbled on it."
The customer finally concluded to buy
another pair Of earrings, and have the dia-
mond he had put into stud.
THAT stone" said the ieweler, after the
customer had gone, holding up the solitaire
earring so that it flashed dozen brilliant
colors, lis what is known to the trade as
fancy fine. 1t is pure blue white stone
and of great value. I should say it is worth
$500 a carat. To match stone of that
quality is very difficult. Although within
one hour l can examine 81, 600. 900 worth
of diamonds / would not find one of the
same weight color and cut as this one.
Formerly, if jeweler had customer who
was DESTROYS of matching diamond of this
quality he would ransack the jewelry stores
all over the world IN order to obtain what
he wanted. Of course, that made the price
so much higher TO the customer. Nova
days jewelers. prefer to cut stone to ORDER.
1t is not always certain even then that the
| Jewels will be exactly alike. One cannot
always Judge to fraction OF carat what
the rough stone will weigh after it is cut.
With the less valuable diamonds this
difficulty is not 50 great. While the sup
ply of fancy fine diamonds in this country
| is limited. there are plenty of the poorer
| quality of stones In fact the supply of
| fine diamonds all over the world is lin
| tied.
| THE most difficult thing for jeweler to
obtain is necklace of fine diamonds. TO
| begin with he takes one large diamond.
After that all the diamonds in the necklace
must come in pairs, one On each SIDE. The
! jeweler must be even more careful about
| these than he would have to be II they
were intended for earrings. In the latter
| case the jewels are separate. and trlf1ing
| fault might pass undetected. But III
necklace. where the jewels are in one piece,
the slightest difference in color would not
pass unnoticed even by an amateur. A
| Of chahQ would lOnly like q
| topaz beside a white diamond. Even the
slightest difference i'll shape would be
plain and put the necklace around the
+! throat of a woman in full dress and every
fault would become doubly pronounced.
1T sometimes takes jeweler years to
make perfect necklace of fine diamonds
After it is begun there are great many
changes before it is finished. The work OF
gathering the diamonds for first-claSS neck
lace does not pay. The profit on diamond:
is only 10 per cent.-at least that is all thai
a reputable dealer charges.
| "A customer once came to US and asked
us to make him diamond necklace not tt
exceed SO, 900 ir-priee- That is. of course
a small price for necklace, in which there
are from twenty-five to fifty stones. L
took us nearly year to get it satisfactory
and. after counting the time and worry los
in the work, we found that our profit wa
less than per cent. That sort Of thing
does not pay.
I'VE are now engaged in making neck
lace that will cost $50. 900. l have standing
orders with leading diamond merchants fol
a certain class of diamonds for this neck
lace 1t is intended for a prominent Chi
cago society lady. We have about one-hal
the diamonds necessary. Before it is fin
ished, however. l think it probable that TIN
many changes necessary to get it satiSfac
tory will compel US to lay aside half of TIN
diamonds now selected.
Il have made hundred changes in ar
ranging the diamonds for single necklace
With any other jewels this extreme car
would be unnecessary, as defects or differ
ences are not noticed in them that would bt
glaringly apparent in diamonds.
'One difficulty, which is equal in tn
amount of trouble it gives us to all the
others put together, is the eyesight of oul
customers. Being in a critical frame o
mind when they purchase diamonds the.
see defects which do not exist, and it
hard to convince them that they are mis-
taken. The eyesight has to be educated in
studying diamonds. and we often spent
hours in explaining and showing the beau
ties OF diamonds to customers. Some VII
insist that two diamonds are mates, whe
they are as unlike as mulatto and whit
man i'll color"